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31 May 2013

Preview – The Blue-Eyes Structure Deck

Each year, the OCG produces 2 structure decks, one in June and one in December. The last Structure deck brought us the Fire Kings. The new one (upcoming June), will produce a LOT of support for Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

New Blue-Eyes Support

There’s not 5, but 6 new cards in this set! Let’s review them quickly:

Blue-Eyed Maiden: Already reviewed this card when I first laid eyes on her. Simply put, she’s a lv 1 tuner that brings forth the wrath of the Blue-Eyes if you try to touch her. Many people already found ways to abuse her (because she gets her effect when the user targets her for card effects (like Spellbooks for example).

Guard of Storm Dragon: The Rider of Darkstorm Dragon. This card is a Lv.1 tuner that works as a union monster and allows the equipped monster to inflict piercing damage. This is the least impressive card of the new cards.

Dragon’s Mausoleum: A Foolish Burial that can potentially work twice (if you first dump a normal monster, you can dump another one). I see use for this in Blue-Eyes decks, Chaos Dragons, Dragon Rulers and Hieratic Decks.

Bellow of the Silver Dragon: Special Summons a Normal monster from the grave. Also, this card is a quick-play spell. Can be used in Gemini, Hieratic and Blue-Eyes decks. Who doesn’t like a quick-play monster reborn (lol).

Dragon’s Soul Castle: Continuous Trap. Once per turn, you can banish a dragon from your grave to boost one of your monsters. When it’s sent to the grave (by any player’s card effect), you can special summon a banished dragon. Can be used in Chaos Dragons, Dragon Rulers and obviously, the blue-eyes deck.

Last but not least, the Blue-Eyed Silver Dragon: The long-awaited Blue-Eyes Synchro! When it’s summoned, dragons cannot be targeted or destroyed by card effects (so no bottomless, no Dimensional Prison; only Solemn Warning works). And during each of your Stand-by Phases, you can revive a Normal Monster from your grave. Not just dragons, ANY normal monster. That means Gemini monsters as well! This card is obviously used in Blue-Eyes deck, but can also be used in Gemini Decks, Gem-Knights and even Hieratic decks (Delta Flyer + Vanilla Dragon of Lv. 5/6).

Note: These are the OCG names according to Shriek, these are subjected to change when hitting TCG shelves.

"You want to D-Prison ME?I eat prisons for breakfast!"

Amazing reprints

Next to the great new cards, there are also a lot of good reprints. I’ll give a few of the better ones:

Flamvell Guard: Became interesting again ever since Dragon Rulers use this card. For those that can’t get this “old” Hidden Arsenal 1 card, here’s the first reprint.

Honest: Just checked it and I can hardly believe it. My collection of Honest’s has been reduced to the ones I use. All spare ones have been traded over the years. So I guess a new reprint doesn't hurt, eh.

Maxx “C”: Common Maxx “C”? For the OCG, this reprint is great, since the first print was a short print card from the Extra Pack. Though, I doubt if this card will be in the TCG variant.

Trade-In: Expected reprint, since this is needed in every Blue-Eyes related deck.

Cards of Consonance: Last reprint has been a few years ago, so a new one is welcome for newer players.

White Elephant’s gift: THIS is a blessing. This card had 1 print: it was a short-print from the hardly-sold Starstrike Blast. It's hard to find this card, unless you buy a box of that set and even then, you’ll probably only get 1.

Monster Reborn: One of the oldest cards that is still great. It's one of the best top-decking cards ever created. Newer players will be happy with this reprint, because it’s not easy finding good-quality Monster Reborns at a cheap price (especially since it’s a staple card).

Fiendish Chain: Good card remains good. Even with its two reprints last year, it’s still a wanted card.

Damage Condenser: Interesting reprint. This old Super Rare has only been reprinted once (in the accursed Dark Revelations 4 set) and is still a good surprise tech.

This will be known as White Dragon's Gift from now on!

Afterword

I love dragons and this set will boost all known dragon decks; from good-ol’ Deep Draw Dragons, Disaster Dragons, Chaos Dragons, Hieratic Dragons, Gemini Dragons to the currently overpowered Dragon Rulers.

The only noteworthy absence from this Structure Deck is Super Rejuvenation. But considering this card will be hit in the September banlist (its absence from this set is an obvious hint in my eyes), not many people would be interested in the card in October (when this structure deck will hit the TCG shelves).

Other than that; if Dragon Rulers get hit by the September list, this Structure Deck will be there to heal the wounds for all dragon fans. So rejoice!